Here are two views up the hill behind my house. Its so beautiful and there is lots of moss growing there. I imagine all sorts of little moss gardens peopled with fairies and such wearing floral outfits. Very inspirational!

The hill itself is loose, shaley type rock and can be slippery as an eel to climb. My friend's grandson was here and he spent time sliding down the right hand face of the cliff like an otter, turning red from the clay. Sorry, there were no pix!

Yesterday at our monthly meeting in Parrotsville I taught a little class on the giant 9 patch quilt... it is so fun to make! This wonderful design was created by Anita Grossman Solomon and you can visit her at makeitsimpler.com

You only need 3 one yard cuts of coordinating fabrics to make 3 baby size quilts. Leave the fabric with the one long fold in it as it came off the bolt. Then fold over onto itself across the width to make it into fourths. Then you tape off an 18x21 inch section on your cutting board, making sure your inside diameter is the 18x21, not outside. Your folded fabric will fit inside there with a little extra on the unfolded or raw edges. Cut this off so it fits within your taped square. Two corners will be folded and 2 corners will have the raw edges. Now line your ruler up parallel to one of the RAW edges, nine inches from the edge and make one long cut.

Leave the fabric in place, line up your ruler on the other uncut edge, nine inches in, and cut again, going across the first cut. With 2 cuts, you have made 9 pieces. Continue with your other two one yard pieces. Now you can spread them all out and mix and match to make your 3 quilts. So EASY, I love it.

What are they, you might ask? My favorite barnyard birds: guineas. They were babes when I got them, just saying peep, peep, peep but last evening Co-op (the white one) started saying a faint Buckwheat - Buckwheat - Buckwheat, her first adult noises and this morning she was practising some more! This 2 note cry is only made by females, the males have a one note squawnk. They are great watch birds because they screech and holler every time they see something odd... only problem being that most things are odd to them. But they really have some endearing ways.I expect to be adding them to some quilty items

I opened a box with lots of scraps in it that I found at a yard sale somewhere. (I'm sure I'm not the only one...) This looks like someone made quilts for a bunch of grand daughters and had long strips left over and some small squares. How can I use them? This little scrappy lap appeared!I love it posing in the country landscapes...

This is an amazing quilt; her first entry in a show! Check out the video that shows her use of wool and flannel and all the intricate stitching that went into this beautiful piece.

Hey if you attend our meetings in Parrotsville, you should recognize this! This started as an example in the class I taught on Bethany Reynolds' Stack-N-Whack technique. I pieced it last summer after the class and then it went into danger of being a UFO.... but its less than a year and now its quilted and finished... that means its not a UFO, right?

It looks happy here on my newly painted porch steps. The fan fabric was from a bed ruffle that I inherited from my mother in law, Evelyn Buck. I hate it when beautiful things start to fall apart, and you know how bed ruffles can be eventually. I decided to do a stack and whack with it; it was a typical fifties looking floral and wow, the stack and whack just unlocked its potential and makes it look like an entirely different fabric! So kaleidoscope... I took the finished fans to the fabulous fabric shop in Baileyton, TN where I got the perfect Kona fabric pink and the nice greens to finish the quilt out.

Its all machine work... perfect for the ones of us who are in a hurry!!